Welcome! Here, you'll find an online guide to the philosophy of science, and to the theory of evolution in particular. Over the course of many interesting and fruitful discussions with young-Earth creationists -- people who believe that the creation of the Earth and universe occurred over the course of six days, as recorded in the book of Genesis -- I've found that few, if any, of them actually understood the theory of evolution and accompanying scientific philosophy. If you've read and agree with the anti-evolutionary material put out by groups such as the Institute for Creation Research or Answers in Genesis, you probably have many misconceptions about science, geology, evolution, and the progression of scientific understanding. You may think that evolution is a theory in crisis, that the scientific establishment simply denies that evolution is wrong because of its naturalistic and materialistic worldview, that it suppresses evidence pointing toward a creator God; you may think that scientists now confuse and ignore the distinction between operational science and historical science, that any two beliefs about the origin of the universe and of the variety of life are equally valid.
These misunderstandings are not limited to young-Earth creationists; there are old-Earth creationists, intelligent-designists, and even people who accept evolution simply because it's what was taught in school, not because they understand it. If you think that creation science groups have points, if you think that evolution's bad science, or if you simply want to learn more, then this guide is for you!
Disagree with me already? Hear me out first. My goal in this website is not to persuade you that we evolved -- after all, if God is powerful enough to create matter and energy from nothing, then he's certainly powerful enough to rearrange them any way he wants! -- but rather to help you understand science and evolution. Could there be spirits, God, a spiritual world beyond our material, empirical experiences? Certainly: I believe in God, myself: in the work of the Holy Spirit in my everyday life, in salvation through Christ by grace alone. At the same time, I acknowledge that evolution is actually really good science, that science can address matters of the origin of humanity and of the universe, and that science is the single most powerful tool we have of learning about the universe.
So, I aim not to persuade you that we have a common ancestor with every single living thing on the planet, that the universe is 13.7 billion (give or take a couple of hundred million) years old, or that God is a myth. Rather, I intend to help you to better understand science, and especially the theory of evolution. If you choose to be a creationist, to believe that God made the universe six thousand years ago in its present form, then feel free: you have that right! But please, if you do choose to reject evolution and other aspects of modern science, make sure that you understand it, and see why people feel it is so compelling and powerful.
Please bear in mind that this is not a comprehensive guide to evolution; it is an introduction geared to those who have been exposed to the theory only from a biased, creationist perspective and have literally no experience with undistorted evolution.
Here's the starting point of the guide: the Table of Contents. Feel free to either read through in the original sequence, or to skip through and read the articles mamby-pamby and piecemeal. They stand on their own, though I do intend the concepts to build through the course of the guide. Without further ado:
Get started! The first page is an introduction to the scientific method.
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